This collection considers key issues arising from the use of Medieval Latin in Britain from the 6th to 16th centuries. Although in this period Anglo-Latin was not the native language of its users, it ...
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This collection considers key issues arising from the use of Medieval Latin in Britain from the 6th to 16th centuries. Although in this period Anglo-Latin was not the native language of its users, it was nevertheless used extensively for a wide variety of functions from religion, literature, and philosophy to record-keeping and correspondence. It existed alongside a number of everyday native spoken languages, including English, Anglo-Norman French, and Welsh. The chapters examine Latin with regard to the many multilingual contexts in which it was used, looking beyond narrow comparisons with its Roman ancestor to see what medieval users did with Latin and the diverse effects this had on the language. The fifteen chapters are divided into three parts. The first part considers important examples of Latin usage in Britain during four successive periods, pre-Conquest, the 12th, long-14th, and 15th and 16th centuries. In the second part, examples of different spheres of use are examined, including the law, the church, music, and science (and its assimilation of Arabic). In the final part the use of Latin is considered alongside the many native languages of medieval Britain, looking at how the languages had different roles and how they influenced each other. In all the many contexts in which Latin was used, its use reveals continuity matched with adaptation to circumstance, not least in the development of new vocabulary for the language. Between these two poles users of Latin steered a course that suited their own needs and those of their intended audience.Less

Latin in Medieval Britain

Published in print: 2017-04-27

This collection considers key issues arising from the use of Medieval Latin in Britain from the 6th to 16th centuries. Although in this period Anglo-Latin was not the native language of its users, it was nevertheless used extensively for a wide variety of functions from religion, literature, and philosophy to record-keeping and correspondence. It existed alongside a number of everyday native spoken languages, including English, Anglo-Norman French, and Welsh. The chapters examine Latin with regard to the many multilingual contexts in which it was used, looking beyond narrow comparisons with its Roman ancestor to see what medieval users did with Latin and the diverse effects this had on the language. The fifteen chapters are divided into three parts. The first part considers important examples of Latin usage in Britain during four successive periods, pre-Conquest, the 12th, long-14th, and 15th and 16th centuries. In the second part, examples of different spheres of use are examined, including the law, the church, music, and science (and its assimilation of Arabic). In the final part the use of Latin is considered alongside the many native languages of medieval Britain, looking at how the languages had different roles and how they influenced each other. In all the many contexts in which Latin was used, its use reveals continuity matched with adaptation to circumstance, not least in the development of new vocabulary for the language. Between these two poles users of Latin steered a course that suited their own needs and those of their intended audience.

This chapter is primarily concerned with Anglo-Latin prose: that is to say, Latin prose composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 650 and 1050. It poses the question of the extent to which ...
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This chapter is primarily concerned with Anglo-Latin prose: that is to say, Latin prose composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 650 and 1050. It poses the question of the extent to which Anglo-Latin authors were aware of different stylistic registers, and how well they understood what diction was appropriate to either prose or verse. Using the example of Bede as a starting point, the chapter provides a list of those features of poetic diction that are found, in varying degrees, in the authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The seven criteria presented provide a crude measuring-stick against which to assess the poeticism of the principal authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The study of poeticism in Anglo-Latin prose, and in medieval Latin literature in general, is a subject that awaits exploration.Less

Poeticism in Pre-Conquest Anglo-Latin Prose

Michael Lapidge

Published in print: 2005-11-24

This chapter is primarily concerned with Anglo-Latin prose: that is to say, Latin prose composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 650 and 1050. It poses the question of the extent to which Anglo-Latin authors were aware of different stylistic registers, and how well they understood what diction was appropriate to either prose or verse. Using the example of Bede as a starting point, the chapter provides a list of those features of poetic diction that are found, in varying degrees, in the authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The seven criteria presented provide a crude measuring-stick against which to assess the poeticism of the principal authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The study of poeticism in Anglo-Latin prose, and in medieval Latin literature in general, is a subject that awaits exploration.

This chapter discusses the reconstruction of vanished Anglo-Saxon libraries, focusing on works known to, or quoted by, pre-Conquest Anglo-Latin authors. It makes distinctions between quotations and ...
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This chapter discusses the reconstruction of vanished Anglo-Saxon libraries, focusing on works known to, or quoted by, pre-Conquest Anglo-Latin authors. It makes distinctions between quotations and verbal reminiscences because the evidence of each needs to be evaluated differently. A quotation provides the safest sort of evidence when an Anglo-Saxon author names his source and then quotes that source verbatim and in extenso. A reminiscence consists of a collocation of several words taken, often involuntarily, from an antecedent source.Less

Reconstructing Anglo-Saxon Libraries (III): The Evidence of Citations

Michael Lapidge

Published in print: 2008-02-14

This chapter discusses the reconstruction of vanished Anglo-Saxon libraries, focusing on works known to, or quoted by, pre-Conquest Anglo-Latin authors. It makes distinctions between quotations and verbal reminiscences because the evidence of each needs to be evaluated differently. A quotation provides the safest sort of evidence when an Anglo-Saxon author names his source and then quotes that source verbatim and in extenso. A reminiscence consists of a collocation of several words taken, often involuntarily, from an antecedent source.

This chapter conducts an investigation to look for a late 10th-century writer who had an interest in biography and hagiography, and whose Latin prose showed strong Frankish influences in vocabulary ...
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This chapter conducts an investigation to look for a late 10th-century writer who had an interest in biography and hagiography, and whose Latin prose showed strong Frankish influences in vocabulary and hagiographical motifs, which is suggestive of an education either in Francia or at the hands of a Frankish master. It also seeks a writer whose Anglo-Latin mannerisms owed much to a long-established bombastic and convoluted prose style stretching back to Aldhelm in the 7th century, reinforced by hermeneutic usage imported from Fleury in the 10th. It emphasizes that the Pseudo-Asser's own personal ambition as a writer, far outstretched his ability to organize material or to sustain a coherent narrative free of irritating digressions. It also seeks for a writer with some knowledge of Old Welsh or Cornish, and who also had an interest in the etymology of place-names.Less

A Lot of Latin and Less Greek: Pathways to a Thousand-Year-Old Forgery

Alfred P. Smyth

Published in print: 1995-11-16

This chapter conducts an investigation to look for a late 10th-century writer who had an interest in biography and hagiography, and whose Latin prose showed strong Frankish influences in vocabulary and hagiographical motifs, which is suggestive of an education either in Francia or at the hands of a Frankish master. It also seeks a writer whose Anglo-Latin mannerisms owed much to a long-established bombastic and convoluted prose style stretching back to Aldhelm in the 7th century, reinforced by hermeneutic usage imported from Fleury in the 10th. It emphasizes that the Pseudo-Asser's own personal ambition as a writer, far outstretched his ability to organize material or to sustain a coherent narrative free of irritating digressions. It also seeks for a writer with some knowledge of Old Welsh or Cornish, and who also had an interest in the etymology of place-names.

The chapter surveys the beginning of Insular Latinity, with Gildas the Anglo-Latin tradition in the context of earlier Cambro- and Hiberno-Latin traditions, the distinctive approach to Latin among ...
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The chapter surveys the beginning of Insular Latinity, with Gildas the Anglo-Latin tradition in the context of earlier Cambro- and Hiberno-Latin traditions, the distinctive approach to Latin among Insular peoples who spoke non-Romance vernacular languages, drastic changes with the arrival of Francophones at the Norman Conquest, and the relations between these Latin traditions and the emergence of the earliest and richest vernacular literatures, in Welsh, Irish, English, Norse, and French.Less

The Start of the Anglo-Latin Tradition

David Howlett

Published in print: 2017-04-27

The chapter surveys the beginning of Insular Latinity, with Gildas the Anglo-Latin tradition in the context of earlier Cambro- and Hiberno-Latin traditions, the distinctive approach to Latin among Insular peoples who spoke non-Romance vernacular languages, drastic changes with the arrival of Francophones at the Norman Conquest, and the relations between these Latin traditions and the emergence of the earliest and richest vernacular literatures, in Welsh, Irish, English, Norse, and French.